Buhari Worried Over non Payment of Teachers’ Salaries

President Mohammadu Buhari expressed regrets over the non payment of teachers’ salaries by their respective States, saying it was unfair.The President shared the concern on Tuesday after taking briefs of the activities in the nation’s education sector from the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Education, Dr. MacJohn Nwaobiala‎ in Abuja.
Speaking to the State House Correspondents at the end of the meeting, Nwaobiala said that the president frowned at a situation whereby teachers were owed for the upward of 6 months, stressing that States couldn’t have preferred illiteracy to education.
He said: “The President raised the issue of non-payment of teachers’ salaries in some states. He felt it is something that is very unfair. Do you prefer your people to be ignorant?
“Some teachers have not been paid for six months in some states, some have not been paid for one year. The President felt very concerned about that.”
Speaking on the face off between States and the West African Examination Council, WEAC where the council had threatened to cut off States that have not paid the registration fee of their wards, the permanent secretary said the Ministry would appeal to States to redeem their pledges.
“The Head of WAEC has briefed me about it. It is so sad. States pledged to pay on behalf of these students and WAEC took them on based on the pledge. Now when it comes to the time to pay, it becomes a challenge.
“We will appeal to the states to see this as very important. A promise to a child is very important and it must be implemented”, he said.
Also lending his voice on the raging controversy over the cut-off marks for students taking the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Nwaobiala said that the system has been on the ground before now.
He however asked the students to sit for the post UME exams in their respective first choices as consultations were still on going to resolve the problem of admission benchmark.
“This JAMB thing has been there. As the policy making body, when these issues were raised, it was raised in a stakeholders meeting. We normally have what we call the policy meeting. Everything about admission are discussed with parents and other stakeholders at the meeting.
“These are decisions that we collectively took. However, we have a listening hear. We have taken a lot of the issues raised into consideration and we are consulting to see the adjustments we can make here and there.
“The directive has been given. All the students that made the cut off marks have been told to go and write post-UME examinations in their schools of first choice. After, they can go to their schools of second choice. That has been the bone of contention”, the permanent secretary said.